Ma Tianyu plays twins Liu Xie and Liu Ping, and the latter returns to the palace to take his older brother’s role as the last emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty. History tells us that his attempts to wrest power away from warlord Cao Cao were futile, and his empress Fushou (Wan Qian) is killed in the process.

Han Dongjun plays Sima Yi, a good friend of Liu Ping who later goes to serve the Cao faction, while Tan Jianci, who played Sima Zhao in screenwriter Chang Jiang’s other Three Kingdoms drama The Advisors Alliance, costars as Cao Pi.

There’s been a steady stream of promos for this show, so we’ll probably see the 40 episode historical romance drama on Tencent soon.